According to police, a heavily pregnant Idaho mother shot her toddler before turning the gun on herself.
Elizabeth Lawley, 33, and her unnamed 2-year-old son were discovered dead inside her father’s home in Wallace, a small town along Interstate 90 about 50 miles east of Coeur d’Alene.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that Lawley likely killed her son and then killed herself,” the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to police, Lawley was about six months pregnant when she committed the apparent murder-suicide.
According to the Coeur d’Alene Press, Lawley’s father was the first to discover the gruesome scene.
Neighbours said he returned to his house around 6 p.m., assuming his daughter and grandchild were napping in a separate room.
He didn’t check in on them until 8:30 p.m., when he discovered their bodies.
“Speaking honestly, in my 19 years of service for Shoshone County, I’ve never seen the SCSO so somber, so devastated; we shared a lot of hugs, and we shared a lot of tears. Today was an extremely difficult day for the family, for our office, and for this community,” Sheriff Holly Lindsey said on the tragedy.
“I may just be sleep deprived, but I can’t stop thinking about how precious life is.
“Kiss your spouse, hug your children, call your parents and your sibling(s) to check in with them-don’t take any of it for granted…not even for a minute.”
The apparent murder-suicide is the latest in a string of familicides to sweep the nation.
Parth Gandhi, a Utah doctor, killed his 16-year-old son and then himself inside his Psychedelic Therapy and Research office last week.
Lindsay Clancy, a mother from Massachusetts who was suffering from postpartum depression, strangled her three young children to death before attempting suicide.